KRAFTWERK - THE MAN MACHINE @ 45

 

Marking it’s 45th anniversary this month is the seventh studio album from Kraftwerk, The Man-Machine, which was originally released in May of 1978. It would complete the dehumanization process which had begun with Autobahn and crystallize the band’s image is musical “robots”, precisely crafting the future of techno-pop music for generations to come.

While the band’s previous album, Trans Europe Express, did a lot to streamline and perfect the pulsing electronic rhythms which had been evolving throughout their previous two albums, particularly with its groundbreaking title track and their expanded use of step sequencers and automated rhythms, Man-Machine took those techniques to their logical conclusion. They enabled the group to achieve a kind of stately exactitude which had a transcendent quality, ushering the listener into an alternate mechanical universe. It was like they’d finally manifested the true “soul” of the automaton and, not only made it live and breath, but also imbued it with the uncanny ability to bust a remarkably funky move! The entire album was bursting with a syncopated dance-ability which had been bubbling up in past releases, but which was now the dominant force. The opening track in particular, The Robots, announced itself with such bass shaking authority that it sent listeners cranking their volume to fully exploit its shuddering groove.

When I first bought the album, sometime around 1979/80, I brought it over to my friend’s place because he had a proper hi-fi stereo system. He aptly pointed out to me how perfect it sounded, with no sense of acoustics from the natural world. It sounded completely synthetic, though not at all “plastic” or phony. It was like hearing sound directly for the first time, like it was being transmitted to your brain with no interference from the atmosphere, like you were hard-wired. It was pure and pristine and unaffected. That made it stand out from any other record I had in my collection, electronic or otherwise. The uncompromising elegance and precision that was in place throughout every track put it in a category all its own. There was nothing else that came close to it.

That distinctiveness carried through to the artwork and even the promotion of the album, where Kraftwerk had commissioned the creation of mannequins to be made in their exact likeness. This allowed them to host two synchronized release events, one in London and one in NYC, where the former was attended by the group themselves and the latter was attended by their mannequins. In later years, they would be evolved to become actual physical robots and then 3D computer generated avatars. Artwork for the cover was produced by Karl Klefisch, based on the work of the Russian suprematist El Lissitzky – the words "Inspired by El Lissitzky" are noted on the cover. The back cover image is an adaptation of a graphic from Lissitzky's book for children About Two Squares: A Suprematist Tale of Two Squares in Six Constructions. The image of the band in their coordinated attire also set a precedent for the group, who would hence-forth always adopt coordination in their outfits, especially for live presentations.

Strangely, the album did not sell well when it was initially released, but it proved to be a sleeper. In the UK, it took until 1982 for it to chart high enough to become the group’s 2nd best selling record behind Autobahn. Two singles where released from the album with The Model, again, becoming a sleeper hit in the early 1980s. It’s like it took a few years for the world to catch up with Kraftwerk and figure out how far ahead of the game they were. Of course, the release of Computer World finally reinforced their visionary comprehension of where electronic music could go and there’s NOTHING in that world today which hasn’t built on Kraftwerk’s foundations. The Man-Machine is still my favorite album from them and its pristine songs hold up time and time again.